Sexual Honesty is a selection of replies to the questionnaires about womens' sexuality that were used in compiling The Hite Report. Obviously they have been selected for interest, but the variety they reflect is still amazing: lesbians and heterosexuals, women who first masturbated at twenty eight and women who can't remember when they started, women who can do without sex and women desperate for it, women who are strictly monogamous and women who are wildly promiscuous, and so forth. I would have thought that, post-Kinsey, everyone knew this sort of variety existed, but statistics don't give the same feeling of immediacy that these responses do. Funny, sad, confused, angry — the extracts read more like autobiographical short stories than survey responses.

Anyone who still thinks female (or human) sexuality is something simple and easily understandable should read Sexual Honesty and have their minds broadened. It might also be of some use to women confused about their own sexuality. I'm not sure why my sister thought I needed to read it, however.

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Note: A survey of the people in my room reveals that a majority don't have the foggiest idea who Kinsey was. He was the author of Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male and Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female, two epoch-making surveys which destroyed many of the common myths about sex.

June 1992

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Related reviews:

- more erotica
- books about women + feminism
- books about sex